Welcome!


I have always enjoyed being crafty. I remember getting really excited about stickers and fun stationary when I was little. Well its good to know that some things in life never change!

I was introduced to scrapbooking in 2005 and have been hooked ever since. My love of crafting has branched out to include DIY, projects, gardening, baking, and canning. I hope to share my projects here.

Showing posts with label Yudu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yudu. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Library Bags using Yudu

Hi All! My daughter's have discovered the delights of our local Library, so we have been going once a week this summer. I decided to make the girls their own tote bags to carry and store their library books in.
I am really loving my Yudu machine today! These totes were so easy to screen...we went from plain bag to screened and out the door in about an hour! I used outdoor grade vinyl on my screen instead of emulsion. I find it works great and costs a fraction of what emulsion costs. This particular brand is from H & H sign Supply online. It is GT5 Intermediate vinyl. I purchased it in a roll of 12" by 10 yards.

I planned my design using Graphically Speaking Cartridge and my gypsy. I placed the images centered on my mat and then cut the vinyl out. I did not reverse the image as I placed the vinyl on the TOP of my screen. I popped it in my YUDU, flooded the screen and pulled once....Voila! I quickly dried the ink on the tote bag with my heat gun and then heat set it again using my iron. We were out the door in no time.

I also made some little monogram tags for each bag so the girls can tell theirs apart. Both girls picked which mini monogram they wanted for thie bag and I cut them using QuickKutz vinyl I picked up from Hobby Lobby. I then quickly laminated each tag using my Yourstory machine, punched a hole in the corner and stuck a keychain on it. I hung the tags from the bag handles.

A quick and fun little summer project.

Thanks for visiting and have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Yudu Tshirts using Hannah Montana Cartridge

Hi All! I have been working hard on projects to share with you. I am trying to keep up with my own cartridge challenge, and I am happy to post something using one of those cartridges today.

I made a couple of t-shirts for my dd's using the YUDU and the Hannah Montana Cartridge.

I have been using outdoor vinyl on my YUDU screen instead of Emulsion. I still need to practice more, as I am not always getting as crisp of an image as I want, but overall I am pleased with how these shirts came out.

The white ink I used was Versatex. I thought the Ink was very thick, so on the first shirt I watered it down some..it bled through the shirt more and bled under the vinyl too. SO for the second shirt I used it straight from the pot, without diluting it. I got a better image, but still not perfect, and it also still bled through the fabric, although not as much.


The Sparkly Ink is YUDU Gunmetal bronze. I LOVE this color. It turned out so sparkly and it hardly bled through the fabric, so I may just stick to YUDU ink in the future.

The Heart image was cut at 10.81 inches., and the Fonts were cut at 1.28 and 1.86 inches.



Well I am happy to have used both my YUDU and a cartridge that was on my challenge list.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

Friday, April 8, 2011

My new Yudu, and my first not-so perfect shirts.

Hello All!

Last August, I went to the Circle meet-up in Wisconsin. At the meet-up we used the YUDU machine and made shirts and tote bags there with the Circle Logo on it. I was immediately smitten and I had flashes of all the fantastic things I could make with the YUDU. This was the beginning of my obsession with getting a YUDU. It took a while to convince my hubby that I needed this machine. He wasn't really buying it, but when I found out that Michaels was having a special on the YUDU for 100 bucks...well he finally gave in. Yipee!

So I parked my booty outside Michael's a full 30 minutes before they opened on Thursday, just to be sure that I got one! I laughed all the way home from the store on the super high you only get when you know you scored a great deal on a toy you really wanted!

Well fast forward 36 hours after coming home with my new treasure and some of my euphoria has worn off. Sigh..

Well I watched the entire DVD that came with the machine as well as numerous videos on YouTube. I felt like I could attempt a project. I was scared of using the emulsion sheets because they are pretty pricey, so I tried to use vinyl.

WELL...that didn't go so well. My vinyl's adhesive wasn't strong enough to stand up to the ink.

OK..Second attempt with a different vinyl...NOPE...

Okay, for my third attempt I used one of the emulsion sheets....ummmm... NOPE, and let em tell you..THAT HURT! Wasting an entire $10.00 sheet of emulsion because I didn't have the screen wet enough. I figured out that I didn't have it adhered to the screen well enough, so it just washed right off. I have since learned that my screen needed to be much wetter than I had it the first time so....

Attempt #4...Second and last sheet of emulsion. It appears that I correctly adhered the emulsion and burned my image on it OK. At least mostly OK.

I attempted to pull a screen onto some scrap material I had and the ink bled all over. I think the material was not absorbent enough for the ink to stick to it to well. When I tried to pull another screen on the back of a old tshirt, the image came out better, but there was some haloing effect in certain areas that had bled in the first attempt. I think, now that the screen had extra ink on the material side from the first attempt, so I washed offthe screen and re-dried it in the machine.

Well over an hour later, and I again tried to make a shirt. The same thing happened, but to a lesser degree. I have come to the conclusion that my emulsion wasn't perfect and some of the edges are loose. I pulled a few shirts as a trial and I am only getting a small halo effect in the loose areas. Luckily these were meant to be sleep shirts anyway, so the girls don't really care, but I obviously need to practice some more.



My friend, Missie, over at Created By Missie, also just got a YUDU and she used an outdoor vinyl to make her screen, and it worked perfectly, so I have ordered some GT5 Vinyl and as soon as it arrives I will be trying that technique.

Also as I was washing the ink off of my screen for the second time, some of the Emulsion was starting to peel up, so it really cinfirmed that the emulsion wasn't on that great.

I will say, my first attempt was very much a let down, but I am certainly not giving up on screen-printing just yet.

I welcome any tips or techniques anyone has to offer, as I am beginner, but I really want to make the most of the YUDU.

Thanks

Have a Great and Crafty Day